


The Plummet Of The Bluebird

by TheIvySiren



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, Angst, Childhood Trauma, Depression, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Minor Original Character(s), Multi, Nesting, Original Character(s), Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lotor (Voltron), Slow Burn, Unreliable Narrator, Unrequited Love, Wing Grooming, Wingfic, Wings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-05-19 20:22:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14880590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIvySiren/pseuds/TheIvySiren
Summary: He couldn't breath. Now when he could hear the mocking laughter of the monster, the monster that changed shape every time he went to sleep and yet stayed human when he woke up. And he wondered, wondered why he was so weak. If only he could have had held it in, maybe the past would've been different.Maybe his family would be different, maybe his mother would not doubt every new person she came across, maybe his older sister wouldn't check thrice every night that every door and window was locked before going to sleep. Maybe his father wouldn't have to word himself carefully, worrying for what words could set them off. Maybe his younger siblings and cousins wouldn't be afraid to sleep alone...and maybe.Maybe he wouldn't be afraid of flying again.ON HIATUS





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Welcome to the first chapter! I hope you guys enjoy reading it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darkness...he was being consumed by it. The nightmares were playing through his mind, every day, every night, every hour-second-they were consuming him. Eating him alive and he knew...knew that it was only a matter of time before he couldn't hold himself together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...Um Hi? I hope you guys like the story and enjoy it, this is my first Voltron fan fiction and yeah.

_Darkness._

_He was falling into it, almost as if it was an endless ocean of darkness that crashed down its waves in an unforgiving manner. The waves were well above him, for he was still falling deeper and deeper…yet he could feel the vibrations of the waves around him._

_Could feel the waves pulse on his skin, ring in his ear and bubble up in his mouth. He could breathe- and yet he couldn't at the same time. He could see-yet his eyes were shut tight. He could feel-yet there was nothing to feel around him._

_Although his eyes were closed, he could see, so he noticed very easily when strange dark lines, lines so dark that they blended in with the endless ocean, rose from deep down._

_When the lines first touched him, he was reminded of hands-but that thought was quickly discarded as hands usually had fingers and noticed sharp ends that could cut into your skin no problem._

_These tendrils moved around him, circling his body, rising up his feet till they completely surrounded his legs and then they moved higher and higher and he shivered when he felt their smooth but wet silicone like skin cover collarbones._

_At that very moment, he decided to take in a breath- not because he had to, but because he wanted to. When he did though, that's when the tendrils struck._

_They filled up each and every crevice in his mouth, from the soft indents on the flesh to the tiny cracks in the bone. Then the tendrils pushed in more and more, deeper and deeper until he could almost feel them in his lungs- he didn't choke- he wanted to but found that he couldn't._

_The tendrils moved higher and higher, deeper and deeper, faster and faster until they started to slowly circle his eyes. He felt their heavy weight on his eyelids and when he expected them to blind him they did the opposite._

_Slowly they started to retreat, they uncovered his hair, his cheeks, his nose and started to come out from his mouth. They pulled and pulled and Lance was more than surprised at the amount that was inside him. When the last of them left his mouth, he took in a deep breath._

_-That's when they struck again, only this time it was over in a blink of an eye. A breath escaped his mouth and then darkness consumed him- he only realized what happened from the strange and suffocating feeling surrounding him._

_Lance didn't know why but he decided not to fight them, not because he trusted them but because he knew he would lose either way and he was too tired to even try and open an eyelid._

_His mind grew foggier and foggier, thought jumbled up into a mess and senses disoriented until he couldn't recognize the difference between up and left._

_§§ ___ §§§ ___ §§§_

_He woke up with a groan tearing out of his throat._

_His whole body was pulsing with pain, he could feel something warm trickling down his cheek- taking a breath in, he realized from the harsh metallic smell that it was blood._

_He tried to move his hands, but the only thing he felt was the screams and protests of his muscles, followed by the sound of metal clashing against each other. The sound of **CLINK CLANG** echoed in the room. _

_He heard a whimper but it wasn't his own, it couldn't have been-not when his mouth was gagged. His body felt strange, not because of the pain he felt but the length of his body felt wrong, almost like he lost two feet worth of body height._

_Looking around Lance realized that that was the exact case. He was in a place, a place he's only been one time and one time only. His chest felt tight, almost as if he couldn't breathe and he knew that this time he couldn't._

_The memories rushed at him, the pain, the beating, the mocking laughter, and the feel of blood coating his body. He remembered the sound of crushing bones, followed by an excruciating amount of pain._

_The rush of memories broke when suddenly heavy footsteps came closer and closer until he felt a hot breath on his shoulder. He didn't dare move – he knew it was pointless._

_A cold hand touched his side – without wanting to, he flinched away from it. Laughter came tumbling out of the lips of the monster behind him – Lance didn't know what shape he'd take this time, not that it mattered._

_The monster croaked out something – a word that he couldn't understand. The sound that came tumbling out was horrible and incomprehensible. It sounded like choked blood pouring out of broken lips. He couldn't understand the words spoken, but he didn't need to – they were embedded in his mind for all of eternity._

**** **_"Let's see how much of this you can take, soldier."_ **

_Then the strikes came._

_Hit after hit._

_Strike after strike._

_One followed by another._

_Sometimes they would come in a blazing rush. Sometimes there would be seconds of peace – but he knew it was only because the monster was debating where to hit next. Sometimes they wouldn't be as harsh as the ones before. Sometimes they were strong enough for his body to feel nothing but raw numbness._

_But he could take them. He could take each and every hit no matter what. It wasn't his life on the line, it was somebody else's and he would do anything to protect **him**. Even if he had to bite off his own tongue _

_§§ ___ §§§ ___ §§§_

_The punches and slaps soon changed to whips and knives. Three harsh whips would immediately follow two stabs of a knife._

_He lost so much blood that his vision was swimming; he could feel his skin rise at the areas where he was whipped – he was pretty sure his skin was peeling off. But still he didn't let out a single sound, he refused to do so, not only would it admit defeat but it would also lead to **him** being punished. _

_Suddenly he felt an intense heat at his back; his body contracted and tried to fold itself in half when he realized he was being branded. He didn't know what the brand said; heck he could barely feel his skin by now. A muffled groan sank into the rag in his mouth as a large hand pressed against the burn mark harshly – those hands weren't there to ease the pain, they were there to make it stronger._

_The monster said something again. It was followed by a loud laugh that rang clear as bells in his ears. He couldn't understand what was said this time either – he didn't need to._

**_"Careful soldier, I think I almost heard you groan. Wouldn't want that, would we? You wouldn't want your ------- to_ die _would you?"_**

_His whole body was covered in fluid. Sweat and blood covered him, almost like a disgusting blanket. Lance wondered how long he could take this – he knew this was a dream, yet right now to him, it was real._

_He wondered how long he could keep his walls up, how long before that fated scream came rearing its ugly head out of his mouth._

_He didn't have to wonder long._

**_"Let's try something else…shall we?"_ **

_At first, he felt nothing; just a certain type of numbness that one felt after hurting themselves. His body was still feeling the effects of the previous blows so any other part of his body was completely numb. Five, maybe ten seconds later and he **heard it** – he didn't **feel it**. _

_The crushing and grinding sounds came first, almost as if someone was rubbing two pieces of sandpaper against each other. **Cristch Crstch Crustch** , was how it sounded. _

_And then finally – because it meant that this nightmare would be over soon – he felt it, the immense pain in his wings. He could help the scream that tumbled out. The first scream caused a domino effect._

_Scream after scream escaped his lips, each next one louder than the ones before. The pain in his wings was one that he never felt before. The muscles that he never even knew existed burned like embers of an erupting volcano._

_He felt nothing but pain. His mind blanked out completely. It was only when he heard two heavy thuds that he realized what happened – he didn't care about his wings, not when he realized that he made a sound._

_Just like what happened in real life he started to lose consciousness.  He vision started to blur and redden – blur from the pain and redden from the blood falling upon it._

_His eyes were closing and he was fighting a losing battle. But suddenly they snapped open when he heard a scream, a cry of a child followed by a **BANG!**_

_Before his mind blanked out completely the monster said something again. This time though he could understand him crystal clear._

**_"Remember soldier, he died because of you. Not because of me. It wasn't my weakness that killed him. It was yours!"_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love to hear-well read your thoughts about the story! If you notice any mistakes please tell me as I'm almost certain that are hundreds or so of them


	2. Chapter 2

 

§§ ___ §§§ ___ §§§

 

Lance woke up in a daze. He couldn't remember where he was, what he was doing there and more importantly, how did he get here. His vision was blurry, his cheeks felt sticky almost as if he had been crying and if he had been, well he couldn't remember why.

His throat felt dry, raw and hoarse almost as if he had been screaming non-stop for hours on end. He raised his hand and rubbed his eyes and finally the darkness started to dissipate as his room's light started to turn on.

Thankfully the light's never turned on one bright flash, they turned on slowly letting one's eye get used to the brightness. Hearing the low thrum of the castle-ship he finally registered the fact that he was still up in the great emptiness of space and not back on Earth.

Groaning he lifted his blanket off of his body and stood off his bunk bed. When he started to stretch though he noticed that something was wrong, very wrong.

There was some kind of sharp pain in his back, a type of pain he hadn't felt in ages. A type of him that started slowly at his back and slowly spread down to his fingernails. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't take in a single breath until it all became too much.

He didn't even register the fact that his knees gave out. One second his was standing up, trying to take in a breath and the next he was just down on his knees.

Cautiously he stood up, readying himself to fall down again any second. His thighs shook a few times but he finally managed to get a grip on himself. He twisted his body around until he could feel the upper part of his back.

Rubbing his hand across he immediately moved his hand away and looked down to see it covered in blood. Grimacing he rubbed his hand on his robe, the blue fabric changed to purple.

The doors of his room opened with a Whoosh as he slowly stumbled down the dimly lit corridor. He used his hand to support himself as he took in short breaths. His chest was moving up and down in a harsh manner and a whizzing type of sound was leaving his lips.

He could the back of his robe stick to him as it slowly soaked up all the blood. Sharp shocks of pain would stab him every now and then, making him stop every thirty seconds to compose himself before he could continue his way.

Finally, he reached the med bay and quickly slid inside the room as the doors slid open. He grabbed a small white box on top of a pile of other similar boxes in the corner, he knew the boxes were emergency First-Aid kits. Of course instead of wasting the limited amount they had he could preferably use a healing pod.

But healing pods came with a downside, not only would he be out of commision for a few vargas at best and they were programmed to make a report of every sentient being that stepped foot in them. And he was quite sure that he didn't want Coran or any of the paladins wondering why there were reports of him having a heavily damaged and torn up back.

Slowly but surely he gathered himself and walked out of the medical bay and towards the showers. He didn't have much energy to start with so by now he was full on leaning on the marble walls, making sure that his back didn't come in contact with anything in fear of the blood seeping through.

His vision was hazing again and everything seemed to sway side-to-side. The blood loss was starting to affect him in full power. A few times already he was dangerously close to dropping the First-Aid kit and just straight out passing out on the floor but he couldn't let himself do that.  
  
He couldn't succumb to the numbness that was spreading throughout his body, he couldn't afford to do so.

 

§§ ___ §§§ ___ §§§

 

Finally, after what felt like vargas, he managed to get to the shower room. Looking around he spotted his basket of showering supplies - shampoo, some amazing kind of alien conditioner, body wash, body lotion and his usual pouch of facemasks that he made from expired food goo.

Normally he would shower in the large communal area, it had several large showers with large showerheads, two large bathtubs that were somehow always filled with some kind of nice smelling, neon-glowing liquid that instantly foamed into bubbles as soon as someone got in them and a huge, almost the size of a small pool, hot tub that had glowing crystals at the bottom.

Clutching the First-Aid kit and his shower supply basket he walked over to one of the five private shower rooms. They were a lot smaller than the communal one and only had a shower, no bathtub or hot tub. One thing that he also didn't like about them was the fact that instead of the showerheads pouring tiny pellets of water they would literally pour high-powered steam.

Grudgingly he set down the basket and the box and carefully peeled off his robe. It clung to his skin, not only from the now dried sweat but also the dried blood.

It took him about five minutes but he managed to take the robe off with tiny sharp tugs. The good thing about that was that it finally got the robe off, the bad thing was that it aggravated his wounds all over again and they started to bleed even more so than before.

Inspecting his robe he couldn't help but wince. The front was completely soaked while the back was full on purple, the bottom was still blue but it was slowly changing too.

Pressing on one of the tiles Lance waited as it slowly opened to reveal a glowing teal chute. It was one of the laundry chutes of the school, which were located in several different locations. Throwing his robe down the chute, he hoped it would be back in a quintant at least.

Turning on the tap he hissed as hot steam poured down on him. He closed his eyes and groaned as his muscles slowly but surely relaxed. Once his hair was wet enough for it to stick to his forehead did he open his eyes.

Under his feet, there was a swirling of red and pink as the water mixed with blood washed down the drain. Taking his loofa and body wash, he lathered some into his hands before rubbing it along the loofa.

Slowly and carefully he washed his body, paying special attention to his back to make sure the wounds didn't get more irritated than they already were.

Once he was done washing he turned off the water, grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his hips. Walking over to the corner he pressed the edges of the white box and with a quiet _click_ , the box opened.

Inside was small squeeze tube of numbing cream, two thick rolls of gauze and two bottles of some kind of neon pink drink that cured everything from headaches to coughs to sneezes to insomnia.

Tapping on one of the wall panels he started to unravel a roll of gauze as the panel turned into a mirror. Squeezing the tube of numbing cream he turned around with his back facing the mirror, he turned his head until he had a good view of the mirror and started to lather the cream on his wounds.

The wounds in question were two identical cuts almost five inches long, the flesh around the wounds was pink and puffy, they were deep enough that you could see the muscle under the skin tightening and relaxing with every jerk of his shoulders.

He ignored the tiny glint of metal inside both cuts and wrapped the gauze tightly around his torso and neck, making sure his back was completely covered. The bleeding had completely stopped by now but with every step he took, he could feel the cuts throbbing as the gauze pressed tightly against them.

 

§§ ___ §§§ ___ §§§

 

After leaving the showers he hurried to his room and changed into his usual clothes, usually after all that he would feel like doing nothing more than sleeping but right now, sleep was the last thing on his mind.

An hour after he woke up he started to remember the dream he had bit by bit, and it made him wonder, why did those memories play themselves again? They happened so long ago and he hasn't had nightmares like that in three, very peaceful, years.

And yet suddenly, they were back - just like that - ready to tear down the walls he built and force him to crumble down again. Lost in his thought he paid no attention to his surroundings as his feet slowly carried him from one part of the castle-ship to another.

Before long he ended up in a corridor that he's never been before, and although he noticed that the light was dimmer in this section - he was still too lost in his mind to question it.

Just as he was about to run into a wall that he swore wasn't there before, he heard a voice call out his name.

"Lance?" Turning around Lance realized it was Coran and yet it almost wasn't. Instead of the usual grin, the middle-aged alien usually had on his face, his lips were set in a tight smile and- the whites of his eyes were tinted teal - which he learned is what happens when Alteans cry.

Here in the dimly lit corridor - Coran looked much older than usual - as if all of his will to keep going on was suddenly sapped away and all it left was a man wearing only loss and pain on his shoulders' along with the responsibility of guiding a child-queen and taking care of five strangers thrust upon his head like a crown that couldn't be taken off.

Coran stood a few feet in front of him, in his usual ensemble of blue and white. When Lance first saw Coran's wings - he was instantly mesmerized. Instead of being a copper-like-orange like his hair they were light teal at the top that slowly changed to a darker shade at the edges. A few feathers spread about were pure white.

Although they looked amazingly soft and were coloured beautiful - it wasn't the two factors that mesmerized Lance - no, rather it was how the inside of the wings would glow a soft blue when you looked close enough.

\- Turns out although Coran didn't possess as much as Altean magic as Allura, it was just enough for his wings to softly light up their way in the dark.

To Lance, Coran was like the torch they didn't realize they needed but when they did they made sure to never let go of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I never realized how stupid I am until this moment. I opened up a tab on my phone to search for the Altean translations of time. I needed to write 1 day, I was literally looking at the screen and typing in to make sure it was correct and I don't know how but instead of writing quintant I wrote deco-phoeb...which I only realized after I posted the chapter and went out for my daily walk.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Coran have a bonding moment and Lance ends up slamming into something really hard. 
> 
> If you hadn't already check out the previous two chapters since I revised completely.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Guess who finally updated? Me! That's who! So as you can see I changed the title from The Wings On Which To Fly to The Plummet Of The Bluebird. I also decided to keep the ship as Keith/Lance, I thought about changing it but I didn't really have a plan on how to work in Shiro into the relationship at this stage, which I know really doesn't seem much but I thought of quite far ahead by now. 
> 
> ALSO check out the previous two chapters as I revised them completely.

 

§ ___ §§§ ___ §§§

 

"Lance? What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Coran! Sorry I didn't see you there! I was just...walking around you know- lost in thought"

"Ahh, yes I suppose..."

Both of them let out awkward coughs at the same time and laughed when they realized what happened. Clearing his throat Lance smiled and latched his arm around Coran's, who was at first surprised at the action but ended up going along with it. "So now that you know what I was doing here, I feel like knowing what YOU were doing here."

Lance's eyes twinkled with a curiosity Coran saw in him most of the time, he eyes would light up and enchant everyone in the room - most of the time it reminded him of his...

"Well, my boy, I was just cleaning up around the castle."

"Still?! I thought you would be finished by now?!"

"Well, I DID finish cleaning up most of the castle. Mostly the areas we frequently visit but the others are still not done." Hand in hand, they continued walking down the corridors, enjoying each others company.

"Hey! How about I help you out?" To Lance cleaning at such a large scale was no problem, not with how many siblings and cousins he had back on Earth. Coran's eyes closed in delight as he played with his moustache. "Well, I certainly can't deny an offer that generous!"

With Coran leading the way they leisurely walked down closer towards the darkness. "Hmm. It seems like the lights in this part of the castle don't work anymore, we'll have to fix that!"

They stopped in front of a large door across of which was a door of the same size. Entering it Coran slowly flickered the tiles before freezing in shock.

Once the room lit up, Lance couldn't help but let out a small gasp at how beautiful the room was. It was a lot larger than the small cabin-sized rooms they had to stay at.

The walls instead of being the usual white tiles of marble were in fact painted like an open field at sunset. The ceiling had two suns painted on them, one yellow and one pink while at the same time having hundreds of flickering lights next to them, the sky was painted a beautiful pink that slowly changed to orange and finally purple. There were large strands of what looked like grass painted at the bottom tiles and they were decorated along with purplish-pink flowers that Lance assumed were the juniberry flowers Allura would always talk about.

In the centre of the room was what looked like to be a lime green floating mattress covered in a blue sphere of light. In the corner of the room was a large opened trunk that had - what looked to be - weapons flowing out of it.  
There was a large stand of different coloured and sized shields along with a few different types of guns.

There was a large slick white bookcase that was filled to the brim with books as thick as Lance's arms and thighs. At one corner though there was what looked like to be an Altean crossbow made out of white metal and unlike the usual teal-ish-blue glow, it had one in purple.

"Canna..." A choked sob escaped Coran's lips. Looking over Lance realized the slippery man had managed to get to the floating mattress and lower it, along with the sphere it used to be surrounded by. The copper-haired man was on his knees kneeling next to the bed and clutching something in his hands.

Walking slowly over to him, Lance managed to catch a glimpse of the object in his hands and managed to connect the dots. In Coran's hand was a picture - more like a really great sketch - of an Altean that had dark skin and dark blue hair.

He had a strong jaw and his markings under his eyes were a bright red. His hair was long and in a loose ponytail that came down to his knees. His eyes were a bright pink with green circling them. Around the eyes though was what looked like to be white eyeliner that was slightly smudged.

His was wearing white poofy pants, a black, long-sleeved shirt over which was a purple sleeveless tunic.

Next to the man - who apparently was called Canna- was a much younger Coran. His hair was also long, it was in a medium sized ponytail, and he no longer had the moustache. He wore black yoga-like-pants over which was a sleeveless jacket with a high collar and a white strip down the middle.

Crouching down next to him Lance put his arm around his Coran's shoulders. He immediately felt his body flinch and tense, finally Coran hugged him back and buried his head on Lance's shoulder.

In just a few seconds his shoulder was soaked with tears - yet Lance could careless about that.

 

§§ ___ §§§ ___ §§§

 

About two vargas passed as Coran and Lance just talked while leaning on the mattress.

"-So obviously, we made a bet on who could grow the most fabulous moustache!" By now Coran's eyes were just slightly teal and puffy, his energy was slowly returning to him as he talked more about Canna, who like Lance, suspected was Coran's lover.

It turns out Canna and Coran first met when they were just toddlers. Canna was the son of one of the soldier guards of the Castle Of Lions and ended up spending quite a large amount of time with Coran.

They stopped speaking when Coran started to focus more on his role as an advisor and Canna started to train with the other soldiers-to-be, but in the end, they managed to fix their relationship...right before Canna disappeared.

"Thank you, Lance. This conversation made me feel a lot better!" Twirling his finger through his moustache Coran lept up and helped Lance up. "Now! I believe it's time for all of us to meet up in the kitchens and have some breakfast, what do you say?"

At the mention of breakfast Lance's stomach let out a grumble as he sheepishly rubbed his head. "Yep! I didn't even notice how much time has passed!"

Coran's eyes developed a mischievous glint as he smiled at Lance before sprinting down the corridor, screaming "Whoever ends up last is a rotten Yoglur egg!"

  
Honestly, Lance didn't even know what a Yoglur was or that they even laid eggs but one thing for sure was that he wasn't losing this battle!

Laughing loudly, Lance took off after Coran, who was already halfway through the twisted corridors. He pushed his body as hard as he could, slipped on the floor as he tried to turn a few times, but none of that mattered when the happiness in his chest bloomed like a spring flower.

Lance wished he could feel like this all the time, he wished that no matter how bad the fights with the Galra were they would always be able to win, always be able to save another life- no matter how small, big, insignificant or important- he wished that one day they would be able to go back to Earth and show everything to Allura and Coran.

He wished that he would be able to introduce his family to his team, show them how much he'd grown up and most of all see how much they grew as well. He wishe-

-With a yelp, he ended up slamming into a hard surface that was surprisingly warm for it to be one of the white pillars.

"What the hell, Lance?!"

"Keith?!"

 

§ ___ §§§ ___ §§§

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, Canna is the first OC I've ever created and maybe it's just my pride talking but I would love to add more parts about him. Don't quote me on this but maybe as a side project, I'll start a fanfic on the past of Canna and Coran. DON"T QUOTE ME ON THAT!
> 
> If you hadn't noticed that's fine but I took of the A/B/O verse cause I had a plan for adding it in but I changed my mind about it.


End file.
